I’ve moved back into house where my murdered mum and sister once lived

THE sole survivor of a brutal hammer attack on a family has revealed how years later she has bought their old home and moved back in. Josie Russell was just nine when she, her mother Lin, 45, and sister Megan, six, were blindfolded, tied to a tree and bludgeoned with a hammer.

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Yesterday Josie revealed how she has bought and renovated her old family home in Wales where she recovered from her ordeal with her father Shaun.

Speaking to Lorraine Kelly on her ITV show, the 31-year-old said: “I’m not a victim, I’m not a survivor, I’m just me.”

Josie revealed Iwan knew nothing about her past when they met – in a pub on New Year’s Eve 2005 – while at university in Caernarfon, North Wales.

Of growing up, she said: “I don’t remember very much. We didn’t really talk about anything. We just carried on with life. We went out and did normal teenage stuff.”

Lorraine had interviewed Josie and her father a year after the attack and then again 10 years ago.

Asked how she has managed to overcome her lifechanging ordeal, she said: “I think just being really, really busy.

Michael Stone was convicted of the killings in 2001 (Image: REUTERS)

“My work is doing really well. That’s just making me focus on that and the future and everything.”

Describing Iwan as her “soulmate”, she also told of how they live together in the house she grew up in with her father after her mother and sister died.

Josie stunned paramedics with her incredible survival after the horrific attack near Canterbury more than 20 years ago.

The trio, along with their pet dog Lucy, had been returning home down a quiet country lane after a school swimming gala when Stone pounced.

Lin, Megan and Lucy were found dead by police at the scene.

Paramedics assumed Josie was dead too but found a faint pulse.

After she was discharged from hospital, her botanist father Shaun Russell took her back to the secluded Nantlle Valley, where the family had once lived.

Lin and Megan Russell who were battered to death in a copse near their home, Chillenden, Kent (Image: KENT NEWS)

He hoped the seclusion would help them all focus on dealing with their devastating grief and her physical and mental recovery.

Josie’s rehabilitation was a long, slow process and it was a year before she could speak again – but the young girl impressed doctors with her progress.

Her close bond with her father and her mother’s old horse Rosie have helped her through her struggle – with Josie still riding the pony.

Now after years of living away, she and Iwan are living once again in the house that was once her safe haven from the world.

Lorraine asked her: “When you look back, is it all about remembering happy times with your family?”

Josie said: “I feel like I’ve always lived in that house. We’re just making it how we wanted it to be now, a little bit more updated, because it’s a very old house.

“I remember happy times, playing in the garden and things like that.”

In July 1997, police arrested and charged Michael Stone, who was 37 at the time, with the murders.

He pleaded not guilty at his first trial in 1998 but was convicted after a witness claimed Stone had confessed to the killings while in prison.

Stone, from Gillingham, in Kent, was jailed for life in 2001 for two counts of murder and one for attempted murder.

After his original conviction was overturned on appeal, he was convicted again at a second trial.

Fire alarm engineer Iwan proposed in 2016 but the couple decided to keep it secret as they discussed plans for a future family.

Josie added: “It was on Christmas morning, Iwan gave me chocolates and said ‘Sorry, I didn’t get you much.’ Then he produced the ring – a diamond solitaire – and said: ‘Happy Christmas’.

“He did offer to get down on one knee and propose but I told him he didn’t have to.

“It was a wonderful moment because Iwan is not only a wonderful man, he’s my best friend.

“We’re happiest when we’re walking on the beach together or in the mountains biking.” In 2011, using money from a trust fund and compensation for her injuries, Josie was able to buy back her old house which the couple have renovated.

Her studio is the bedroom that Lin decorated for her when she was a little girl.

Discussing the wedding she told viewers they have no firm date yet: “Just one day when we’re less busy maybe. At the moment we’re just happy being engaged.”

And the same goes for having their own children: “We haven’t said anything, but maybe one day when we have more time.”

Described as being “positive” by Lorraine, Josie replied: “I’ve just got to get on with life and just carry on. I love my job, it’s all fine. Happy.”